Train roster gets normal

Train services on Kharagpur-Bhadrak section of South Eastern Railway (SER) is all set to become normal by Monday morning.

For, reinstallation of steel girders on a bridge between Balasore and Haldipada stations on the section was complete, railway authorities informed on Sunday afternoon.

Station manager of Tatanagar Awtar Singh said that normal services were expected from the small hours of Monday.

“The reinstallation work of the steel girders have been completed successfully. Trains will start running on time now,” Singh said.

Train services had remained affected for three days, starting from Friday, owing to the repair work which as expected went on for over 48 hours, leading to cancellation of a dozen mail, express and passenger trains plying between Kharagpur and Bhadrak.

Trains on Kharagpur-Chakradharpur section ran on diverted routes on all three days.

Due to the repair work on Sunday morning, both up and down Puri-Haridwar Utkal Express that run via Tatanagar were cancelled for the day.

On February 21 and 22, the trains had run on a diverted route. Instead of travelling via Tatanagar, the train had passed through Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Angul.

The SER headquarters at Garden Reach in Calcutta on Saturday evening, however, issued a notification that the trains would not run on Sunday.

The announcement led to mass cancellation of tickets. A separate counter was opened at Tatanagar station on Sunday from where passengers got the refund.

Similarly, the Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Superfast Express (down) on February 21 and 22 travelled through Dongaposi section and not via Kharagpur, its normal route. The up train did the same on Saturday and Sunday.